Local Sports 4-7-2020

| April 7, 2020

Former Husker Ndamukong Suh has been named to the NFL All-Decade Team. Suh was the number two overall pick in the 2010 draft and has played ten seasons in the NFL and has missed just two games in his career. In 158 regular season games, Suh has 58.5 career sacks and 114 tackles for loss. He is a three time first team All Pro selection and four time Pro Bowl pick.

Tom Brady, JJ Watt and Adrian Peterson were among eight unanimous selections for the All Decade Team. The others were Von Miller, Aaron Donald, Joe Thomas, Marshal Yanda and Justin Tucker. Pete Carroll and Bill Belichick were named to the team as coaches.

The University of Nebraska has expelled two former football players after a school investigator last year found them responsible for violating the school’s sexual misconduct policy. A university spokeswoman has confirmed the players involved were redshirt freshman Katerian LeGrone and Andre Hunt. Expulsion means the two men are not allowed on campus and are permanently terminated as students. Both men were suspended indefinitely from the football team on August 26th and have entered the NCAA transfer portal. Both men face charges in Lancaster County.

Caesars Entertainment in Las Vegas has Nebraska’s win total set at 6 ½ for the upcoming season. The highest win total in the Big Ten West is Wisconsin at 9 ½ followed by Minnesota with nine and Iowa with seven. Clemson is a heavy favorite for the upcoming season with a win total of 11 ½, Ohio State is at 11 and Alabama is at 10 ½.

Fonner Park set another all time record for mutual handle with three million dollars bet on the Grand island races yesterday. The Pick Five Jackpot is expected to top out between 2-3 million dollars which will be paid out today. Racing will continue with no fans in the stands through April 29th. First race post time today will be at 4:00pm.

Nebraska-Kearney volleyball coach Rick Squiers has announced that Treslyn Ortiz will be the Lopers new graduate assistant coach. Ortiz will graduate from Wingate University in Wingate North Carolina this summer. She replaces Kenzie Crawford whose two year appointment ended this season. She is now an assistant coach at Army-West Point. Another Loper GA, Theison Anderson, was recently named head men’s volleyball coach at Morningside.

Nebraska-Kearney has the eighth highest grade point average among NCAA Division II wrestling teams in 2019-2020 while also having nine individuals named to the Scholar All America team. The Lopers had a team GPA of 3.31. Maryville of Missouri was number one at 3.695. UNK seniors Walker Johnson and JD Rader were two of the 11 wrestlers around the nation to make the team for the fourth straight year.

MLB> Major League baseball is working on a plan to start the season with all 30 teams playing games in Arizona with no fans. Under the plan, the season could start as early as May. The plan has the support of high ranking federal public health officials who believe the league can safely operate amid the coronavirus pandemic.

NBA> NBA Commissioner Adam Silver says there’s no way for the league to make a decision about when it can return until May 1st at the earliest, and probably not even then. The league suspended games on March 11th because of the coronavirus. Silver said that in a perfect world, the NBA would be able to return with regular season games, followed by the playoffs, but that no decisions had yet been made about what the league’s schedule would look like should play resume.

NFL> The NFL draft will be conducted in a virtual format, with team personnel working from their homes. In a memo sent to the 32 teams yesterday, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell outlined procedures for the draft April 23rd-25th. The guidelines include no group gatherings. The draft was originally scheduled for Las Vegas, but the NFL cancelled all public events last month as a safeguard against coronavirus.

BIG TEN> Purdue Center Matt Haarms is transferring. Haarms entered his name in the transfer portal and will be eligible immediately for the 2020-2021. The 7-foot-3 Haarms averaged 8.6 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per game this season.